WardPal is a care focused fast paced task app for all healthcare workers designed by ward staff for ward staff!
Visit WardPal.com to start using WardPal, its completely free; nothing to install; and no, we won’t even ask for an email address!
Holistic Care
Where a todo list might seem like reducing patients to tasks, WardPal is different. By giving you a fast way to add, check and complete tasks you’ll spend barely any time looking at a screen and more time focused on your patients! Prioritizing effectively and automatically means that unlike a never-ending list, WardPal shows you the time between tasks; and when you have those, you can take Moments to think about your patients.
Continuity of Care
Not only does WardPal help you be consistent in your care throughout your shift, it also helps to deliver continuity of care when your day comes to an end.
Handovers let you to share outstanding items with fellow health workers allowing them to carry on exactly from where you left off.
Getting Started!
Ward View
This is the first thing you see each time you open WardPal.com in your browser; its the overview of your ward showing you widgets for each bed you add as well as a status bar to show you tasks across all beds at a glance.
The first widget will always be your personal task list named ‘Me’. Unlike beds, this list is for any ward tasks or personal reminders that aren’t for a particular patient.
The last widget will always be the ‘Create a New Bed’ button; tap here to start adding beds to your ward!
Once you have some beds added you will see them on the Ward View too.
Widgets show you a summary of each bed, the tasks due soonest will appear inside the widget and you can tap on a widget to see the full task list or add another task.
Priority
By default Ward View is ordered by priority. This means your beds will rise up to the top of the list as tasks get closer to being due. The priority button is at the top of the screen and is switched on when priority mode is active.
If you need to find a specific bed you can tap the priority button to turn it off. Now your beds will be ordered alphabetically so you can quickly find what you’re looking for.
Even when you turn priority off, you will still see the status bar at the top of the Ward View so you wont miss any tasks coming up!
Create a New Bed
When you tap on the ‘Create a New Bed’ widget, you will be asked to give your bed a name. Don’t use patient identifiable information when naming your beds, instead you should number them or use their location e.g. ‘Side room 1’.
After you’ve typed a name, tap create and you will be taken to your new bed. Here you can start creating tasks, or tap on ‘Done’ to go back to the Ward View.
Remove a Bed
You can remove beds with no tasks at any time by tapping the ‘Remove Bed’ button. If the bed has tasks, you will see a ‘Clear’ button instead. The ‘Clear’ button lets you remove all the tasks for a bed quickly.
Create a Task
To create a task, go to a bed, or your personal list, and tap on the ‘New Task’ button. Tasks are quick and easy to set up; simply give the task a name and then pick when you would like to complete the task by. There are four ways to set when the task will be due.
IN
The ‘IN’ option is the default, set the hours and minutes to denote the length of time, from now, until the task needs to be completed. e.g. “Change Wound Dressing in 2 hours”
EVERY
If the task needs to be repeated, use ‘EVERY’ the same way as ‘IN’. Each time you complete the task, a new task will be set for you automatically, for the same length of time. You will see a repeat indicator next to ‘EVERY’ tasks so you can identify them easily.
AT
If you need to set a task for a precise time, choose the ‘AT’ option and set the hours and minutes as the time (in 24 hour format). e.g. “Call pharmacy at 15:30″
ANY
If there’s no particular time when a task needs completing, you can simply set it to ‘ANY’ and leave out the time altogether.
Managing your Tasks
Once you have some tasks created you will start to see the status bar and the beds on your Ward View come to life with clear notifications about upcoming tasks. The time until the task is shown in either a red, amber or green pill (or grey for ‘ANY’ tasks) and a snippet of the task name is displayed. Overdue tasks tell you how many minutes late a task is.
Complete a Task
When you’re ready to complete a task, simply open the bed (or your personal list) and tap on the Complete button (green check-mark) next to the corresponding task. Completed tasks will show up in the Complete section at the bottom of the task list. This will keep a history of all your completed tasks and when they were checked off!
Undo a Task
Completed the wrong task by mistake? You can immediately bring it back by tapping the ‘Undo’ button next to the corresponding task in the Complete section at the bottom of the task list.
Remove a Task
If you added a task by mistake, or if it is no longer needed, you can remove it in a few simple steps.
- Tap on the ‘Edit Tasks’ button from within a bed (or your personal list)
- Tap on the ‘Remove’ button next to the corresponding task. You can remove both incomplete and complete tasks.
- When you have finished, tap the ‘Done’ button at the top of the task list to hide the ‘Remove’ options again
Moments
Time on the ward can go by in the blink of an eye. On the busiest days it can seem like your to-do list is growing quicker than you can clear it and too soon you can forget to take moments to give truly holistic care. The Moment button (heart) can be found at the top of each bed and acts as an indictor for how much time has passed since you last took a moment to take a look at the whole person, how they are and what they might need that you haven’t picked up on. This can mean making better decisions about their care, or simply recognizing if a chat and a drink could really benefit them today.
The moment icon can also be seen on each widget in the Ward View. It will get brighter over a couple of hours and when you tap the Moment button it will fade again. There’s no ‘due’ time; moments are not tasks, but they matter all the same.
You’ll notice your personal list also has a Moment button. Remember to look after yourself, taking breaks, staying hydrated or just a deep breath once in a while. It can make all the difference in giving your best level of care throughout the day
Handover View
The Handover View shows all of your tasks grouped by bed along with the time when they are due. This makes communicating and delegating tasks easy and handovers at the end of your shift are seamless. You can get to the Handover View by tapping on the Handover button (clipboard) at the top of the Ward View.
You can even share your handover! when you tap on the ‘Share Handover’ button you will be prompted with options for sharing* such as an email or text message. This will send a unique single-use link to your colleague which they can open and continue using WardPal right from where you left off for great continuity of care.
*in supported browsers. WardPal will copy a link to your clipboard instead if direct sharing is not available
Reset the Ward
If you need a fresh start at any time, you can quickly remove all tasks and beds by tapping the ‘Reset’ button at the top of WardPal. A prompt will ask you to confirm that this is definitely what you want to do; you cannot undo this action.
‘Install’ WardPal
WardPal doesn’t need to be installed which means you can use it on almost any device with an internet connection! That said, its convenient to have an app to jump straight into the ward directly from your phone or tablet’s home screen. Luckily you can do this really easily by adding a shortcut to WardPal.com.
iOS (Apple)
On your iPhone or iPad, tap on the share icon in the Safari browser to bring up the sharing options. Then scroll down until you see the ‘Add to Home Screen’ option and tap on it.
Android
On Android devices, tap on the ‘Three dots’ icon in the Google Chrome browser and tap on ‘Add to Home Screen’
Acknowledgements
WardPal was made to pay respect to the amazing people working tirelessly every day in the NHS. With special thanks to Abi, a dedicated RN and an inspiration.
Developed by EricGeorgeRiley.com
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com. Heart icon by Icons8, Repeat icon by Icons8.
Mindfields. 